Editing Book Titles

[cga1982]

Is there a more efficient way of editing book titles than going through each book individually?
For example, I want to change the month in the book title to a short form (so that instead of December it shows Dec).
I know that I can use the Search and Replace (if I had many, many Decembers to change but usually there are less than 10 books for each moth to change.)
Thank-you.

[JSWolf]

You cannot change book titles other then one by one.

What is wrong with your book titles that they need changing?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by cga1982

Is there a more efficient way of editing book titles than going through each book individually?
For example, I want to change the month in the book title to a short form (so that instead of December it shows Dec).
I know that I can use the Search and Replace (if I had many, many Decembers to change but usually there are less than 10 books for each moth to change.)
Thank-you.

RULE #1 for Calibre. NEVER EVER use the OS to change a file or folder name in a Calibre Library. What is in the GUI (database), MUST stay in lockstep with the Library files and folders. Only Calibre knows where it put a file.

I take your question on is really: 'How to format column values'
For dates (in date type columns):
Preferences: Tweaks: take a moment and read the descriptions of each. There are some others you might want to use

ID: gui_pubdate_display_format
------
BTW before you start: backup tweaks,py found in:
C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\calibre
Just in case...

for more formatting, like Alignment: right click the column heading in the main GUI.

[cga1982]

Hi Jon.
I just like my months to have three letters - I'm a bit strange that way.
I also have to convert formats to my "standard" date format. I have to go and change 2026-01-17 to Jan 17 2026 to keep my date formats uniform.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by cga1982

Hi Jon.
I just like my months to have three letters - I'm a bit strange that way.
I also have to convert formats to my "standard" date format. I have to go and change 2026-01-17 to Jan 17 2026 to keep my date formats uniform.

It is rare there are DATES in titles. Calibre is a Database Catalog.
BTW mucking with titles also hinders Metadata fetches from lookup sites

Each TYPE of data has a column for that value.
common columns with Dates:
Date ( the date the entry was first added to calibre)
pubdate (when published)
(normally hidden) Last_Modified (Any change about that books entry bumps this)
While we are talking about dates (and series indexes):
NEITHER accept ranges (Jan-Feb, 1-5. ) These are single value type data. Have a plan to work around by having a standard notation, like: First month, series begin.series end [1.05] (1-5 always use 2 digits after decimal. and yes, 10,20 ... break. THERE ARE ALWAYS EXCEPTIONS )
[FWIW I have just 2 books with December AS a word in their Title]

Many folk have other Custom columns for things like Last read, Edited (clean up the formatting )

The reason FOR custom columns so you do not need to misuse a standard column (that may have unwanted side effects)

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by cga1982

Is there a more efficient way of editing book titles than going through each book individually?
For example, I want to change the month in the book title to a short form (so that instead of December it shows Dec).
I know that I can use the Search and Replace (if I had many, many Decembers to change but usually there are less than 10 books for each moth to change.)
Thank-you.

I'm guessing these "books" are periodicals, academic journals (e.g. The Lancet, IEEE Proceedings) and/or magazines (e.g. New Yorker, Granta).

If they are, say so, and I'll tell you how I handle them.

BR

[Comfy.n]

hmm, if the files contain the month info in their filenames, I figure you could switch calibre preference to temporarily read metadata from filenames.

And use a file renaming utility that can do 'Replace' before adding them to calibre. So you could do a bulk December -> Dec replace.

[JSWolf]

The solution would be to setup a plugboard in calibre to do what the OP wants.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The solution would be to setup a plugboard in calibre to do what the OP wants.

How does the Plugboard affect IMPORTING into Calibre?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

How does the Plugboard affect IMPORTING into Calibre?

I was thinking for exporting to get the title he wants.

[cga1982]

BetterRed, you are correct.
These are mainly for magazines.
Thank-you.

[theducks]

Here is what I did for my Magazine Library (the structure differs from my Main Library)

When a issue is for a range, I use the first month. Series is done this way as it only allows for absolute values. In this case. Month, but you can use the Week or (numeric) day
Series sorts the issue correctly when using numbers

[BetterRed]

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔

The key is: use a different library.

I rebadge Authors as "Pub Name" with a composite column, all issues have a Title of "placeholder" (yes - duplicate titles) and I use a Date custom column (Issue date/#issue_date - yyyy MMMM) as the differentiator.

Added: if its published weekly I create a Series (Pub Name - Issue Date [M]), I only have two Pubs with that.

BR